retirement benefits fund

Investment Strategy

Turnaround at MTAA wins it medium-sized fund of the year award.

MTAA Super has gone from the point of collapse to winning best medium-sized super fund in a remarkable turnaround of fortunes. Both the fund’s chair, John Brumby, and its chief executive officer, Leeanne Turner, paid tribute to MTAA’s staff, management and board who had put in dedicated and sustained work over the last four years […]

Dan PurvesMay 21, 2015

Hedge Funds

Property at an all-time high, but not much to buy

The spread between the yield on bond and core domestic property is at an all-time high, says AMP Capital, but investors are finding it hard to allocate amidst a greater number of international buyers and concerns at office overcapacity. The recent drop in the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cash rate to 2.25 per cent […]

David RowleyFebruary 16, 2015

Governance

Super Salary Survey: Differences in Disclosure

What do the explanations for remuneration strategies given by funds reveal? The biggest clichés in super fund remuneration statements are that the trustees consult with independent external consultants to ensure pay is in line with industry standards and that incentive pay for CEOs and CIOs is based on key performance indicators (KPIs). Usually this is […]

Dan PurvesFebruary 11, 2015

Investment Strategy

Quadrant Super and Tasplan confirm $3bn merger

Wayne Davey, the current chief executive of Quadrant, has been chosen to lead the merged operations of Tasplan and Quadrant super funds from November 2015. The new board will be chaired by Naomi Edwards, the current chair of Tasplan, while the current chief executive of Tasplan, Neil Cassidy will retire on that date. Four current […]

David RowleyNovember 13, 2014

Roundtables

One step at a time to LDI

Large superannuation funds are having a conversation about how they can move to offer their members a greater form of liability driven investment (LDI). Broadly LDI is an investment target that is stated and then aimed for, a target sum or a target range of money that will offer members a decent or acceptable income […]

David RowleyOctober 6, 2014

Hedge Funds

Tasplan-Quadrant to lay down law to global equity managers

A combined $4 billion Tasplan and Quadrant Super is to reassess all global equity managers on their willingness to screen out tobacco stocks. The two funds are in the closing stages of a due diligence process to begin a merger. Due to their relatively small scale, both invest in pooled funds which makes it harder […]

David RowleySeptember 15, 2014

Roundtables

For how long will Japanese equities boom?

After two decades of disappointment Japanese equities posted an incredible 57 per cent return in 2013. Leading institutional investors met in Melbourne to discuss if there is more growth to come. Investing in Japanese equities comes with the baggage of around 20 years of underperformance relative to other developed nations. The causes have been a) […]

David RowleyApril 22, 2014

At the helm – a profile of Tasplan chair Naomi Edwards

Size isn’t everything when it comes to delivering the best service to members, believes Naomi Edwards, chair of the $2.1 billion Tasplan fund. “We don’t accept that the sweet spot for super funds is over $10 billion,” she says. “We think that you can run super funds well for less than that if you’ve got […]

Brendan SwiftMarch 17, 2014

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